Two Aspects of Language and Two Types of Aphasic Disturbances

If aphasia is a language disturbance, as the term itself suggests, then any description and classification of aphasic syndromes must be­ gin with the question of what aspects of language are impaired in the various species of such a disorder. This problem, which was ap­ proached long ago by Hughlings Jackson,l cannot be solved without the participation of professional linguists familiar with the patterning and functioning of language. To study adequately any breakdown in communications we must first understand the nature and structure of the particular mode of communication that has ceased to function. Linguistics is concerned with language in all its aspects-language in operation, language in drift,2 language in the nascent state, and language in dissolution. There are psychopathologists who assign a high importance to the linguistic problems involved in the study of language disturbances;3 some of these questions have been touched upon in the best treatises on aphasia.4 Yet, in most cases, this valid insistence on the linguist's contribution to the investigation of aphasia has been ignored. For in-